5/22 Plainfield, USA!!!!

Hello all my people that are still out there listening... somewhere.... in the lost netherreaches of my memory. How are you? That's great to hear! I'm doing great too.

So this week was awesome! Elder Brinkerhoff (Boise, Idaho) and I put in a lot of work this last week trying to understand our new area. We got "Doubled In" which means that both of us are new to the area and there were Sister missionaries there before. All I'd Like to say is that this ward is AWESOME! In the first 3 days we were here we got fed three times by the members which was awesome, Thankyou very much everybody, that made it for us. It also helped that My New Jersey Mom Sister Wimmer put in a good word to all her friends in this ward to watch out for me and Take care of me and my comp.... So we've been doing really well here.

Sidenote: Our apartment is HUGE. Like super huge, we have two bathrooms and it's the first apartment I've had where I have to yell at my companion because if we are on opposite sides we can't hear each other when we are talking to each other across the apartment.

Elder Brinkerhoff is sweet! We get along super well and he's like a miniature version of myself. Except maybe a little less bitter and sarcastic. He's pretty young in the mission though so it's an opportunity for me to teach him a lot because I'm an aged old man.

Here are some pictures from my last week in Englewood that I didn't get a chance to send last week.

Hope you all have an amazing week and that you enjoyed the snow because it was stinking a 100 degrees on thursday and Friday.

 

 

We pulled out a second shopping cart, this time in only 2 hours...

 

 

5/8 Nerf Wars, Broken Backs, And Feelings Expressed....

MuWell hello again my weekly readers!

     This week we have a few great Highlights! To start from the pictures below!

Starting from the bottom, the last few P-Days to make it more fun for our zone we've been trying to come up with fun activities and stuff so people can relieve stress better. We had a Nerf War! and it was awesome! we played capture the flag and zombies. Growing up my whole childhood with Nerf Guns I don't think I ever had as much fun as I did last monday. It was a blast and everybody loved it, even the sisters!

     Next picture up was from our community service on Wednesday! It's at a nature preserve clean up place in the middle of our area. It used to be an old dump 100 years ago and they've turned the whole place around in the last several years. A couple weeks ago when clearing vines off of trees we found next to a small creek this shopping cart. Or at least all we could see at the time was the wheels sticking out of the mud. Elder Layton and I made it our mission this last Wednesday to finally remove it. After 3 hours of digging through mud, redirecting the creek, clearing water from the pit we were digging, and ruining our backs, We finally got it out! 

     Side note, I could barely walk the next morning because my back hurt so much.... and I may or may not have shifted my hip out of place for the 4th time.

     And then for the last picture, the one directly below, let me describe.... After a long planing session that we were super confused and not sure what to do and my companion said a snarky remark to me. So I wrote that on the board and gave him a lesson on my feelings towards humanity! Muahahahahah

 

 

The Grind continued....

Hello Everybody! This week has been a little crazy with exchanges and everything.

But here is my fun story from the week:

     As we were leaving the church on Friday night at like 8:45 we hear this person yelling, but we don't really register it at all. We get in our car and start driving out of the parking garage. I decide to role my window down because it's super hot in the car and I'm dying because I hate the heat. We pull out and this guy is yelling at us and flags us down. I stop the car and he's like "When is the church open?" And I was like, "Oh, mostly just on Sundays." "Ok what time, I've been trying to find a church and I just live down the street, am I allowed to come."....... So you know, Sometimes miracles come out of no where....

     I also got the joy of Driving around all day Thursday. We were on exchange and I had to chauffeur missionaries between baptismal interviews and doctors appointments because we were the only ones available and have a car.... Joy... So I spent all of Thursday cruising around West New York and Paterson. Paterson is a lovely city, needless to say we decided to get McDonald's 2 miles away instead of the one right in front of us because... you know.... Paterson.

      Hope you all have a wonderful day, I miss ya'll so very much.... Oh and Today is the beginning of the so titled by missionaries "6 Months to Sexy" Meaning that I only have six months to get myself together so I don't go home looking like a fatty.....

 

 Missionary Lunch after Service at the Dog Shelter

 When you realize you have to buy all the snickers because they all describe how you Feel.

 I've Self titled it.... the "Meatwich", or Ultimate "Manwich". Cousin to "The Heartbreaker"

 After Game photo of our Chair Quidditch Game....

 

 And Finally a Time Lapse of the Game:

 

Service

Hello Everybody! I don't have a ton of time to write this week but there is something specific that I'd like to highlight! Community Service!!!

So right now Me and Elder Layton have the opportunity to be part of 2 different services. We help out at a local Animal shelter with the Dogs and then we also help out with a nature park clean up every week in Teaneck.

This last Saturday though, we got the opportunity as all of zone 2 and 3 (about 45 missionaries) to go help clean up a riverside park on Earth Day! It was super fun and we got to help out a lot. I got to dig out an old tire, three foam pads, a carpet, and much much more. We as a whole found 12ish syringe needles (gross right). We cleaned up a ton and helped out a lot.

Now to talk about service, if you back home aren't finding an opportunity to serve the community in some way for at least an hour or 2 a month you are dumb, fix that. Service has become one of the more delightful things to experience on the mission. To help others and expect nothing in return! Go do Service!

 

 

 

The Grind.....4-17-17

  So unfortunately we are in a finding phase of the work, which
means a lot of knocking doors and doing anything to find people to
teach.
     To help out with that we Zone leaders get to go in exchange with
all the elders in our zone. How they want doing these exchanges is by
bringing both of the Elders into our own area so we can show them what
we are doing. This is called "Double Working". Original I know. So
anyways we went on two of such exchanges this week. I got the
privilege to spend a day with Elder Jean-Baptiste from Haiti in which
I learned all the important things to know in Haitian Creole. Now I'm
not going to bother Write them in Creole because that's super
difficult, but I learned "He's chill/ chillin, I'm cold, I'm hot(and
to be careful with that one because it has a bad connotation...), I'm
hungry, I'm thirsty, and Dude. I was informed that these are the
important things to know in Creole by a real Haitian so I guess I'm
set.
      And then I got to go on exchange with Elder Aybar from the
Dominican Republic, but also technically from Orem, UT because he
moved there at his junior year of High school. That was a funny
exchange. Though we spent most of it trying to find people.
     OH and Happy Easter everyone!!!
We got to go eat dinner at Mamma D's house for Easter dinner and it
was awesome. It was a party. A ton of the hood kids in the area were
there so it was Elder Layton and I, and a whole bunch of Thugs. Quite
entertaining and the good was amazing but it wrecked my companion...
The food wasn't very healthy to say the least.....

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

So....ya.... 4/10/17

Hello everybody.
I'm going to give you my deepest apologies but I'm really lazy today
and have no motivation to try and remember this last week. (Please see
video below.)
I love you all, and thankyou for your support and love and kindness and stuff...
Email me if you want to know more. 🙂🙃😉😴😴😴😴

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

The End of our Reign

     Today is the last day of the Transfer... and we got the dreaded
call last night. Elder Peterson's reign as a Zone Leader and time as
my companion has come to an end.... all good things must come to an
end. He will be sorely missed and he is being banished to the south
end of the mission. 😢
     This week was weird. Between stressing about certain things
happening with our investigators and stressing about transfers and
what's gonna happen we are beat! We haven't slept at all. So it's been
kinda rough.
     But despite it all! We had Conference! WooHoooooo it's like the
Super Bowl for missionaries! Their were a ton of talks that spoke to
me but I literally can't think of them right now. The thing I do want
to highlight is that I noticed several talks that seemed to focus on
the Investigators of the church. Reaching out to nonmembers!
      Sorry for the short email.... instead I'm going to give a
tribute to my bond with Elder Peterson.
                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission